Telecom operators such as AT&T, China Mobile, China Unicom, China Telecom, Deutsche Telekom (DT), Verizon and Vodafone are making investment in various IoT initiatives, according to the GSMA.

Global telecoms are rolling outs Low Power, Wide Area (LPWA) solutions to enhance their revenue streams from enterprises.

China Mobile and China Unicom, two leading mobile operators in China, launched NB-IoT across several key cities.

China Telecom launched NB-IoT networks across the country.

Vodafone has launched NB-IoT in Spain and the Netherlands.

Deutsche Telekom has launched in several cities in Germany and nationwide in the Netherlands.

AT&T and Verizon have previously announced nationwide launches of LTE-M technology.

GSMA announced that its Mobile IoT Innovators program to encourage the development of LPWA solutions. The Mobile IoT Innovators program has reached over 500 members.

“The Mobile IoT initiative encouraged the market to adopt licensed LPWA networks and we are now seeing this work come to fruition with multiple commercial deployments around the world, as well as the availability of hundreds of different applications and solutions,” said Alex Sinclair, chief technology officer of GSMA.

GSMA said mobile operators are enhancing their licensed cellular networks with NB-IoT and LTE-M technologies.

These new Mobile IoT networks are designed to support mass-market IoT applications such as smart meters, environmental sensors and consumer electronics, that are low cost, use low data rates, require long battery lives and often operate in remote locations. Both technologies will be further evolved in 3GPP’s Release 15.

According to Gartner, China will be one of the leading LPWA markets, accounting for 486 million of the estimated 3.1 billion connections globally by 2025. China is also at the forefront in the development of Mobile IoT in terms of both network launches and a record number of ecosystem developer partners.

China Mobile has launched NB-IoT networks in several key cities including Yingtan and China Unicom has rolled-out NB-IoT networks in Shanghai, as well as the main urban areas in Guangzhou, Shenzhen and Fuzhou, for a number of different solutions across smart parking, smart fire sensors and smart meters.

China Telecom has announced the roll-out of nationwide NB-IoT networks.

Of the 546 global companies currently developing new solutions based on Mobile IoT technology, over 215 are from China. Solutions include smart parking, pet tracking, asset tracking and smart agriculture amongst many others.